1794 Monterey Presidio
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1794 Monterey Presidio |
Our first destination after motoring under the Golden Gate in calm winds was Santa Cruz about 60 miles south. The winds never picked up that morning so we stopped in the Half Moon Bay anchorage for the night hoping we'd have some better wind the next day. It was a nice large anchorage protected from the ocean swell by a big breakwater. We had been trailing Jim and Christine on Kula that day who we'd first known from Shilshole back in Seattle and had met up with again in Sausalito. The next morning both boats headed out again for Santa Cruz. We found ourselves motoring in calm for several hours, then the NW winds finally filled in around noon and we were able to cruise downwind with our big genoa until we arrived in Santa Cruz.
We splurged by tying up in the marina near Kula who invited us over for some drinks and hors d'ouvres. Our drinks were in the form of tequila shots with salt and lime. We had so many we forgot to have dinner. Oops! What a great time, but the guys did not think so the next morning....
Unfortunately we had arrived in Santa Cruz on a weekday and the huge amusement park in Santa Cruz was closed (only open on weekends apparently after Labor Day). It was still fun to walk around and look in the surf shops without many crowds. Santa Cruz has a beautiful large sandy beach; with the sun shining, the sand and water sparking we had a great time walking down the long stretch of beautiful sand next to the surf.
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Under the sea at the |
After two nights in Santa Cruz, we headed out for Monterey on the south end of Monterey Bay. The sun still shining, we were thrilled to have a brisk westerly wind blowing. With main and genoa set, we flew the 20 miles to Monterey in no time. The wind had kicked up some good sized waves and one even pooped the cockpit! Actually, not a rare occurrence as Pelican's freeboard is so low, especially in the cockpit area. We wear our foulies a lot!
Our cruising guide Charlie's Charts of the U.S. Pacific Coast had read that anchorage was possible off the Monterey pier, but when we arrived we found it to be full of boats on mooring balls, plus a NW swell was fairly large so we found ourselves in the marina again. The marina has very reasonable rates, plus it was close to the downtown area so we did not mind too much. The marina was filled with an amazing amount of sea life -- sea lions, seals, sea otters and brown pelican regularly frolicked around the boat tied at the end of a pier. Monterey, being the first capitol of California has many fascinating historical buildings dating back to the time when California was still part of Mexico in the 17 and early 1800s. We had a great time taking the historical walking tours. The highlight of Monterey for us was visiting the Monterey Aquarium, probably the best in the world. It was really neat seeing what was actually under all that water we had traveled over!
In Monterey our friend Billy joined us for the next week where we would continue on down the coast and into Southern California waters. The three of us left Monterey in a late morning fog motoring in the calm. By the time we had reached Point Sur the NW winds had picked up and we were sailing nicely downwind with the genoa. After a few hours of lovely sailing, the winds had decided to pick up again, this time to about 30 knots so we switched out the 120% genoa with the 90% jib. It was real lively by this time and we both nervously told Billy that this was as bad as it was going to get, as we all had our foulies on now and the boat was zipping down the growing waves.
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Our first fish!! |
Luckily, that WAS all the wind we had but poor Billy had put on his anti-nausea patch too late and spent the evening hanging his head over the side of the boat, losing his dinner. As typical on this coast, all wind had died by midnight and we were once again motoring. The next morning we arrived in Morro bay and set the hook in the estuary surrounded by dense fog. Cleaning up the boat that morning, we found an anchovy on the side deck that had jumped onboard or gotten washed up by a wave. Our first fish!
Happily the fog cleared by noon and we had a great view of the giant round Morro rock that marks the entrance to the bay. Our next two days were spent exploring this fun town, including partaking of the delicious fish and chips near the harbor. A highlight was watching the thousands of birds that lived on Morro rock, Hundreds of huge brown pelicans would dive at once into the ocean surf and we could see seals frolicking among the smaller rocks. The sky was continually filled with soaring and diving birds. We must have watched this city of birds and sea life for two hours!
With good, mild weather forecast for the next few days, we set out one afternoon to make our way around Point Conception. This area is notorious for wild winds, currents and waves so we timed our approach to reach the point around 3 am when conditions are reported to be the most benign. That afternoon we found more calm winds and motored into the evening. With a thick fog surrounding us again, it was a very gray afternoon. But just as boredom began to set in, hundreds of dolphins began jumping around the boat, and as far as we could see in the distance. For about ten miles, groups of dolphins would travel past, many coming over to jump around the boat for a while. What a fun sight!
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Billy, Michael, Pelican & Morro Rock |
Around midnight, we had about 15 knots of wind from the NW and were able to set the genoa and turn off the engine at last. We sailed right past Point Conception in the nice breeze, and had probably our best offshore sail of the trip yet. The wind was nice and steady from behind and we sailed right into the next morning. We kept sailing right up to San Miguel Island, of the Northern Channel Islands group, our destination for the next day or so. Once we were anchored in Cuyler Harbor however, the wind came howling down the hillside into the anchorage, as warned in our guidebook.
Anxious to get off the boat and explore the stunningly beautiful beach that surrounded us, we didn't let the wind stop us from launching the dinghy and piling the three of us into it. Luckily the wind coming from shore was not able to kick up any waves, but the three of us still had to dodge a bit of spray in our slightly overloaded dinghy. Nearing closer to shore, it made our hearts jump a little to see the breaking waves landing on the gorgeous white sand! After a couple of big ones landed on shore, we gunned the outboard and prepared to land on shore. We had the oars ready when Michael kicked up the outboard, but we were not quick enough in our paddling efforts to reach the sand and another wave caught us and turned the dinghy sideways. As the wave went out, Michael jumped in the water up to his thighs and bravely drug the dinghy ashore where the other two of us jumped out. A little wet, but we'd successfully made our first beach landing in the surf!
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Our stunning anchorage at San Miguel |
The beach at Cuyler Harbor was simply amazing -- the sand was full of fascinating seashells and rocks; beautiful sandstone cliffs had been carved out by the wind and waves and farther down the beach were giant soft white sand dunes; so white and huge they looked like snowdrifts, but with areas covered with delicate green plants and flowers. Our boat the only boat in the clear blue harbor -- it was paradise! We hiked up the trail that ran alongside a small canyon and marveled at all the unusual plant life which included the giant coreopsis stalks which held huge flowers in the spring but were now just a mini-forest of giant dried-out looking stalks. Billy had studied botany in college and was an amazing wealth of information on the local plants. It was great hiking with him and hearing about all the interesting habits of plants--it helped us appreciate what we were seeing so much more.
From the top of San Miguel island we could see neighboring Santa Rosa island. We visited the rangers station and talked to what was probably the only other two people on the island. Once back on the sandy beach, we climbed the huge white dunes. From the top we watched the white surf roll in the bright turquoise water. Such stunning colors! We had a blast running down the soft dunes in our bare feet and contemplated staying here forever.
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Among the giant coreopsis mini-forest |
But alas, Billy had a train to catch in a few days in Santa Barbara so the next day we sailed over to Santa Rosa island. The anchorage was surrounded by more sandstone cliffs and what looked like some very interesting sea caves. But again the wind howled down the hillsides into the anchorage. We did not feel like getting ourselves wet in what would be a long dinghy ride ashore so we stayed on the boat eating good food and sharing photos and stories.
The next day we had a fairly quick motorsail across the busy shipping lanes of Santa Barbara channel back to the mainland. It had been almost a week since any of us had showered so first thing we did was grab a slip at the Santa Barbara marina and march down the dock to the showers. We found Santa Barbara to be a lovely town, very wealthy and manicured but with friendly folks at the same time. And the weather was fantastic! Every day was in the 70s and we found ourselves to still be wearing shorts at night. State street was miles of interesting shops and restaurants; of course we had to try out some of the local cuisines.
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Marching for peace |
On the Saturday we were in Santa Barbara some locals organized a peace protest against the upcoming war on Iraq. As we feel the United States should be working towards eliminating war and death and nuclear annihilation and not starting new conflicts, we decided it was the least we could do to join in. We had a great time expressing our views and best of all were enlightened to know we weren't the only ones to feel this way.
Sunday we saw our friend Billy off on his train back to Monterey to get his car, and we moved Pelican out to the rolly anchorage outside the breakwater. It was fun having a guest aboard and we'll miss having Bill along! It is interesting to see our crazy life on the sea through the eyes of someone who has never experienced such a lifestyle. We are able to appreciate the special time that is our life right now so much more and we really enjoy being able to show a landlubber like Billy something totally new -- sailing out on the sea to a near empty beautiful island just like explorers have done for thousands of years.
